258 A. M. Broadley - — The Buddhistic . Remains of Bihar. [No. 3, 
Along the western side of the tank are the remains of a row of temples, 
four in number, of which two have yielded completely to the ravages of 
decay, and the sites of which are only marked by mounds of earth, broken 
pillars, and fragments of idols. The second temple still remains in a tolera- 
ble state of preservation, and the fourth, although very dilapidated, is still 
perfect enough to allow the spectator to form a correct idea of its 
size and proportions. The second temple of the row is built of bricks, rather 
smaller than those of Bargaon, and faces the east. There is a stone 
cornice at the top, and the entrance consists merely of a nai’row opening in 
the brick work. This leads to a court or porch, twenty-three feet square, 
and ten high, as measured from the inside. The roof consists of long slabs 
of grey stone laid from east to west and covered with a thick layer of plas- 
ter. This is supported by sixteen columns, twelve of which are almost 
entirely imbedded in the brick work, while four are as near as possible in 
the centre of the building. These pillars have square bases and capitals and 
octagon shafts, and are surmounted by separate capitals oblong in shape, 
being about four feet in length, and about a foot thick. Various idols are 
grouped around the chamber. There is a distance of about six feet between 
the pillars. At the west end of the room is a very finely carved doorway 
(of which Montogomery Martin’s drawing conveys a very incorrect idea). 
It measures seven feet five inches in width. The pillars on either side are 
two feet wide, and six feet high, and the slab which surmounts them is of 
about the same size. The whole is covered with a very beautiful geometrical 
pattern. The actual doorway is only two feet nine inches wide. It leads 
to a small chamber eight feet square, the roof of which has fallen in, but 
which I suppose was once covered by a dome or cupola. This contains a 
large looted figure of Surjya much mutilated, and a very perfect one of 
Vishnu, similar to those recovered from Bargaon, and now in my collection. 
The whole building resembles most strongly the Buddhist temple dis- 
covered by me on the Baibhar hill at Rajgriha, of which a full description 
has been given in Chapter IV. Strange to say, I only found two purely 
Buddhist images amongst the ruins of Dapthu ; but I have little doubt the 
temples were originally intended for Buddhist worship, and this is confirmed 
by the fact that several figures [most probably of Buddhas] appear to have 
been deliberately removed from the ornamentation of the doorway found by 
me in the mound to the north of the dried-up tank. The other temple 
has no inner room, but is otherwise similar in shape to the first. The lintels 
of the door (now fallen down) are very fine, and are almost identical with 
specimens from Nalanda in my collection. 
Two miles to the south-east of Dapthu is another village, called Sarthua, 
where I found the remains of a tope (nearly levelled by time) and a figure 
of Buddha, now in my collection, and rather larger than life. It is in the 
